Tuesday

May 24, 2016 at 6:48 PMMay 25, 2016 at 8:32 AM

NEW BEDFORD — Researchers on a NOAA-chartered vessel lost a $450,000 camera that was being towed underwater Friday when a cable apparently snagged on a sunken ship near Delaware Bay, delaying vital scallop surveys and frustrating representatives of scallopers in the northeastern U.S.

Government surveys affect future catch limits for scallops, which is the highest-value species, by far, in New Bedford’s $330 million fishing industry.

Teri Frady, spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said the Hugh R. Sharp research vessel was conducting scallop surveys about 75 miles southeast of Delaware Bay, which separates New Jersey from Delaware, when underwater equipment known as a HabCam “separated from the tow cable and the vessel” in about 80 meters of water.

“The surveying was occurring around a known wreck, that of the Bow Mariner, and it appears likely the tow cable snagged on it,” a NOAA statement said.

Frady said efforts to find the HabCam — short for “habitat camera” — will begin Wednesday, with NOAA crews using an underwater rover to search near the shipwreck.

She said NOAA expects to complete most of its planned scallop survey despite the costly mishap, by relying on dredge surveys — which scoop up portions of the sea floor — and resuming photo surveys after the lost HabCam is found and repaired, or replaced.

Frady said the lost HabCam is insured, and its $450,000 value would be roughly the cost of building a replacement.

The Washington, D.C.-based Fisheries Survival Fund, which represents more than 250 scallop vessels in the northeastern fishery, said the incident has broad implications.

“The loss of a key piece of scallop survey equipment demonstrates the need for an overhaul of how the federal government assesses the species,” said a Survival Fund statement released Tuesday.

Survival Fund attorney Drew Minkiewicz said he was “frustrated, to say the least,” by the HabCam’s loss.

“It’s an accident that shouldn’t have happened — the wreck is well-known and its location is well known, so the captain shouldn’t have been towing in that area,” Minkiewicz said. “It’s going to take them over a week, of the very limited time on the research vessel Sharp, to get back on the survey. …We’re going to lose data.”

The accident also comes about five weeks after the National Marine Fisheries Service, under NOAA, denied scallop survey funding to internationally known scientist Kevin Stokesbury, at UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST) in New Bedford’s South End.

The denial of Stokesbury’s proposal for a $2.65 million scallop survey was the first time he had not been given government funding for his work since 1999. Government officials questioned the cost and design of his proposal.

Stokesbury’s surveys use a “drop-camera” system, in which a camera is lowered to the sea floor while the boat is stationary, then raised higher underwater before the boat drifts to another location. The HabCam lost Friday was “flying” just above the sea floor, Frady said, while being towed by the Sharp.

“Once you start towing something over the water, the complexities and expense go way up,” Stokesbury said Tuesday.

The SMAST scientist did not at all use the occasion to gloat, and said — only in response to a question — that he had not been contacted about survey work since the mishap.

“Luckily, no one was hurt. Having a cable like that snap when you hit something always is dangerous,” he said.

Minkiewicz, though, said the HabCam’s loss “will certainly add fuel to the fire for those who felt the SMAST survey was crucial.”

The HabCam lost Friday had numerous lights and sensors, along with cameras pointed at the sea floor, Frady said. A pilot on the Sharp would raise and lower the HabCam to keep the image in focus, while a co-pilot also would monitor the image, she said.